Apology to Sheffield street tree protester – “we ignored, belittled and condemned you”
Isabel O’Leary, who lives in Meadowhead, was one of four Sheffielders who lodged complaints with the council
Last updated 11th Aug 2025
A Sheffield street tree protester who faced court action from Sheffield City Council has finally won an apology that admitted “we ignored, belittled and condemned the actions of the street tree campaigners such as yourself”.
Isabel O’Leary, who lives in Meadowhead, was one of four Sheffielders who lodged complaints with the council for their treatment over their opposition to a plan to fell thousands of street trees.
Isabel, who took part in direct action to save trees, was among protesters who signed legal undertakings with the council in order to avoid being taken to the high court to have an injunction imposed on them to stop their activity.
The apology made to Isabel from council chief executive Kate Josephs said: “The Sheffield street trees dispute was a very dark period for the city. The city council got a great many things wrong over a number of years and made some
significant mistakes and errors of judgement over that time.
“Those mistakes and errors of judgement resulted in a large number of healthy street trees being felled that should not have been. That, in itself, resulted in substantial environmental degradation and loss of habitat and amenity value, and should not have happened.
“It is also clear to me, having read the Lowcock report, that we also closed our ears to those people who were warning us about the mistakes that we were about to make as an organisation and that, in so doing, we lost the trust and confidence of our communities.
“As you know, our ‘we know best’ attitude resulted in serious harm to the city’s environment, our reputation nationally and globally, the wellbeing of our staff, and for campaigners who were trying to persuade us to take a different path.
For that we are truly sorry.
“As the current chief executive of the council, I am sorry for how we ignored, belittled and condemned the actions of the street tree campaigners such as yourself.”
It also acknowledged that the harms done to campaigners like Isabel were “significant and avoidable”. Ms Josephs apologised for the council’s heavy-handed approach in requiring protesters such as Isabel to sign the legal undertaking in order to avoid “potentially ruinous damages”.
The apology acknowledged that Isabel felt bullied and mentioned the “acute anxiety and distress” she suffered. It also admitted that Isabel has been waiting for her apology since she first made a complaint in April 2021.
The letter concluded: “We know that we lost public trust and confidence because of our actions during the dispute. That will take some considerable time to rebuild and is not something that we can change overnight.
“But our commitment to doing so and becoming a better organisation is absolute. We want to be an organisation that puts citizens and communities at its heart, that values different perspectives and points of view, and that is focused on improving Sheffield for the benefit of everyone.
“I hope that, in some small way, this apology has been helpful and that it will mark a start in the necessary rebuilding of trust between the council and the people and communities of the city that we let down during the course of the dispute.”
Isabel recalled: “In 2016 I became aware of it all going on. I first became aware of something going wrong when they chopped down all the trees on the roundabout at Meadowhead.
“They chopped them all down, I was really upset about that and didn’t understand why. I saw notices on big mature trees in Nether Edge where I worked, saying these need to come down for the same reason.
“At the time I took it as saying if the council says so it must be true, they need to chop down these mature oak trees. I wasn’t connecting the dots and seeing the bigger picture.
“Then I knew about a couple of people, they were the first to get arrested, on Machon Bank Road. I knew Calvin (Payne) had been camping out in Endcliffe Park in the summer of 2016 – he saw what was coming, he was camping out to try to save the Rustlings Road trees.”
Isabel said she was astounded to hear that a Labour council was using anti-trade union law the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act. “Margaret Thatcher’s law being used by Labour council upset the tree protesters. Who came up with that I don’t know.”
Isabel said she remembers ex-LibDem leader and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg saying the council’s actions were “like something out of Putin’s Russia”.
Eventually a barrister told the protesters that the law was being applied wrongly, so they were able to challenge the police successfully at that point.
She said she got the impression that the police felt they’d been thrown under the bus by the council.
Isabel got online to follow where tree protests were taking place and her first action was at Dunkeld Road in Banner Cross, where protesters were given 10 minutes to move or face arrest.
She started going to protests in areas where trees were at risk – she pointed out these weren’t just in well off, leafy areas. Sheffield Tree Action Group (STAG) sent out messages to say if people were unhappy that their trees were at risk, to contact the group.
She printed out leaflets and put them through people’s letterboxes in areas where trees were under threat, such as Darnall. Isabel said: “I think it was that day when I was posting leaflets that the arbs (arboriculturists) turned up and I was in a bit of a panic – they’re here, actually going to chop these trees down.
“I went and stood by within where they were getting their equipment out. The chief arb said, ‘Are you going to move?’. I said no and he just said, ‘Oh right’ and I just stood there and messaged some other people and they came.
“They ended up packing up. That was an amazing feeling – I thought ‘Right, we can stop them just by standing under a tree’ and it kind of snowballed from there.
“I’m not saying I was the first to stand under a tree but I was on my own that time.”
She said she joined a group who reacted when local people got in touch with STAG to say they wanted help to save their trees. They were nicknamed the ‘flying squad’ and travelled to Burngreave, Fir Vale, Pitsmoor, Hillsborough and Norton Lees, as well as the Rivelin Valley.
Isabel was at a protest on Myrtle Road, Heeley when she got a phone message from the council, saying they knew she’d been acting illegally and would face action. Then she received a letter from the council on June 27, 2017.
Isabel said: “It was a scary letter, lots of legalese. It said you should get legal advice.
“A bunch of us did go down to a law firm in Sheffield. The message we got was ‘be afraid, be very afraid’. Defending against an injunction can be ruinous, you can lose your house.
“Those of us with a house to lose were scared.” Isabel described how she felt “a mix of fury and fear. I was furious that I was being forced to sign this thing “.
She asked for clarification of what she was banned from doing and was told posting on social media encouraging others to take part in actions and she could not take any action that would lead to a tree not being felled.
Isabel carried on turning up to witness protests and support campaigners through some of the most dramatic confrontations, such as those on Meersbrook Park Road which involved protesters, police and security staff working for Amey.
Despite the protests, she believes the council eventually began to change its position only after the Forestry Commission investigated because the felling of a large amount of trees requires a special licence.
A long series of negotiations followed between the council and campaigners that eventually came up with a joint statement. The council put together a street tree strategy and set up a street tree partnership involving the council and campaigners, where felling decisions were discussed.
When campaigners submitted complaints about their treatment in 2021, they were initially told they would be dealt with by the Lowcock inquiry into the street tree scandal.
However, the inquiry team made clear it was considered outside its remit, and the campaigners only finally got a group apology following an independent review carried out this year for the council by law firm VWV.
Isabel said she was pleased with her personal apology, which she strengthened and added to after the council sent her a draft version. “It’s wide ranging and Kate Josephs has pretty much signed it off as I wrote it.
“I’ve been wanting something that deters other councils from taking out injunctions against environmental protesters, because breaking an injunction is more serious than some of the criminal stuff such as trespass.
“For trespass you can get a fine but for breaking an injunction you can have massive costs or damages and be sent to prison.”
She also feels the council has a long way to go before it regains her trust and she wants to see far better systems in place to make sure that bad decisions can be effectively challenged both inside and outside the council.
Sheffield City Council was given the chance to comment on this story but declined the offer.